Sound Off!
by Leo the Tiger
Summary: Eggman's new threat involves robots stealing people's stuff as the victims are ordered to drop and give the robots 100. Just what is going on?


_**Sound Off!**_

Having another go in Station Square was old hat to Sonic and friends because Eggman was a common threat, but when Leo the Patriotic Lion came into town, it was really something special. This was because Leo, standing tall and proud in that green military band uniform of his, had hailed Sonic as a natural patriotic symbol, since his body, including his shoes, displayed red, white, and blue. Chris would never have thought of such a thing in his life, but Chuck was starting to see the connection between Sonic and Old Glory. What a wonderful sight to see as our blue hero zoomed off to save the day, now with a new attitude towards crime fighting, thanks to Leo.

On this occasion, Eggman's robots were programmed with the stereotypes associated with U.S. Marines drill sergeants ordering their soldiers under their commands to drop and give them ten. Except in this case, the robots were making the helpless civilians do one hundred while they robbed them of all their belongings except the house itself. Although there was nothing the citizens could do about it, they did not panic, for they knew Sonic would come through in the worst or best way possible.

Having forgotten about Leo, Eggman had no idea his robots would be in for some trouble when they tried it on him, even though this particular robot was to raid the Thorndyke residence of all it was worth and then some. "Drop and give me one hundred!" the robot ordered. "And do it now, you lousy excuse for a private!"

"Ha! You think you can boss a higher-up officer like that?" Leo snarled back, with Sonic and friends watching. "Just for that, you drop and give me 200!"

"Not possible! Against regulations! Must obey me! Must obey me!" the robot repeated.

"Does he really think he's in a boot camp?" Shadow asked Leo after about two minutes of no response that led to the robot self-destructing. A cleanup crew sent to the Thorndyke mansion (at Chuck's request) began cleaning up the mess and wheeling it to the city dump.

"There's no excuse for anyone to order you around," Sonic added.

"Unless it's a police officer or something like that," Cream put in. "Chao!" said Cheese in a crying tone.

"I know, and it feels awkward," Leo replied, starting to become even more angry with every sentence. "But I'm not the only one who just was ordered to do so. This is happening all over town, and civilians and businesses alike are being cleaned out of house, home, and store, and, well, wherever they are being cleaned out. No robot is replace the officers of the greatest military force on Earth, the one that belongs to the U.S. of A.!"

"Leo, calm down," Sonic objected. "We'll put a stop to it. Besides, Eggman must be behind all this if he's going to use robot attacks."

"We've beaten robot squads before, and we can do it again," Tails added. "To the X-Tornado, everyone!" He opened the garage door and revealed the X-Tornado, opened the cockpit, and jumped in the pilot seat. Amy jumped in the seat behind him. Chris took the front seat in the back section, and Knuckles sat behind him. Sonic and Shadow braced themselves for a race after watching the X-Tornado blast off.

"Chao-chao-chi-chi-chi-chi-chao-chao!" Cheese said again.

"Cheese not feeling well about this?" asked Ella.

"Cheese will be okay," said Cream. "He's just a bit panicky over the robots. I'd have no trouble doing push-ups, but the robot would be robbing us of everything."

"Well, they won't be coming back, now that Leo put a stop to it," Chuck put in. "Well, at least that one."

"Oh, I'm certain there will be more," said Leo, "with backups for the backups. Oh, and here's a hint, in case you want to radio him: my arch-nemesis, Sully Sullivan—he's dead, but he's the grizzly that cursed quite a bit and drank almost nonstop—when he threatened to make an innocent bystander drop and give him however many, he also threatened to send them to the electric chair if they didn't obey. I doubt Eggman is that extreme, but there are always wacky possibilities like that one."

"We'll remember that," said Chuck, "but Eggman's not that stupid."

High in the sky, the X-Tornado looked for robots over town as Sonic and Shadow raced through the streets. As they came across each one, they took it out in a variety of ways. But it seemed that for every one they took out, _eight_ more appeared to continue the battle. "Oh, no!" Tails said nervously. "There's too many of them to fight!"

"I thought we were just going to take out the control system that's causing it," Chris spoke up.

"We are, but we can't let anyone else be stripped of their belongings," Knuckles replied. "Look out, here's another one!" Tails let loose a bunch of laser fire that promptly took out the robot.

"Nice work, Tails, but it's going to take a whole lot more than that," Shadow called. "They can't be stopped!"

"Hey, I got a plan," Sonic interjected. "You guys keep up the fight while Shadow and I look for Eggman's base."

"Good luck," Amy called back as the two speed demons blazed off towards the hideout.

Along the way, our heroes came across a trail of ooze. "Eeu!" Sonic exclaimed. "What is this icky mega-muck?"

"I don't know, but it's probably going to lead us to Eggman's base," Shadow replied. "Watch your step, but let's follow it." Sonic nodded, and decided to act slow for a change.

The two hedgehogs steathfully crept along the trail until they reached the front door of Eggman's base. It seemed like an easy way in, as there were no robots around. "Guess they're all busy robbing the public," Shadow said after a while of thought.

Sonic whirled up into his trademark spin and busted the door. Shadow jumped in behind him, but the alarms went off, and lasers from security cameras began firing. Shadow jumped out of the way and looked for the main computer as Sonic jumped onto a camera and used its laser to destroy the others, a tactic he used when he first saved Cream from Area 99 and its workers who were placing her under scanners for security reasons.

By the time he found the computer, it became evident to Shadow that Eggman abandoned his base and had fled for somewhere after Decoe and Bocoe proved to be too much of a hassle for his emotions. Like a flash of lighting, the machine was producing one robot after another, all of which wore typical drill sergeant hats.

Sonic rushed in, watched the machine work for a split second, then spun and blasted through the center. The explosion that followed left a mess all over the room, and resulted in an earthquake that led the base to crumble to its doom.

Tails looked down to notice this when all the robots simultaneously went kaput. "They did it!" he exclaimed as he flew the X-Tornado back to the Thorndyke mansion.

"Yes!" Knuckles added. "Another one in the bag!"

"That'll be a relief," Chris spoke up. "One more robbery and I think Leo would've really blown his top."

"He does have anger management problems, but he says he's working on fixing them," said Amy.

Back at the residence, Leo had finally lost hold of his anger and had calmed down again. The public had begun cleanup duty in the meantime. Sonic and friends decided to celebrate at the pizza parlor while Leo walked home to work on his latest military march.

THE END

Sonic the Hedgehog © SEGA

Leo the Patriotic Lion © me


End file.
